Europeans Lend Satellite to U.S. For the Weather

A satellite borrowed from Europe has moved into position to monitor the weather over the United States, joining the sole remaining American spacecraft making high-altitude weather readings, Government officials said today.

The European satellite Meteosat-3, in a 22,300-mile-high orbit above the equator, completed its move from a position over the Atlantic coast of South America to the Pacific side on Sunday, they said, and began routine operations today.

The move restored the normal system of having two weather satellites in geostationary orbit, one each over the East and West Coasts. The United States has not had two high-altitude weather satellites since 1989, when GOES-6 failed and left only GOES-7 working. GOES stands for Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite.

Spacecraft in geostationary orbit remain above the same spot on Earth because their orbital speed above the Equator matches the rotational speed of the planet turning below. Behind Schedule

The next generation of weather satellites, called GOES-NEXT, is years behind schedule and hundred of millions of dollars over budget because of difficulties in developing advanced sensors. Congressional investigators have criticized the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's management of the program. Because of the delays, the Bush Administration was forced to borrow the surplus satellite from Europe to avoid a forecasting emergency if GOES-7 stopped working.

GOES-7, launched in 1987 with an intended five-year life span, is operating well and is expected to last until a replacement is placed in orbit, said Greg Withee of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which operates the nation's weather satellites. By conserving maneuvering fuel, officials said, engineers believe they can keep GOES-7 going until the first of the next generation of GOES satellites is launched in April 1994.

Meteosat-3 was built and operated by the European Space Agency for an 18-nation weather consortium called the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites. The satellite, which was launched in 1988, was an orbital spare for its users when it was put into the new position, at 50 degrees west longitude above the Atlantic, in August 1991 to supplement the American GOES system. Tracked Hurricane in August

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While over the Atlantic, Meteosat-3 succeeded in spotting and tracking Hurricane Andrew in August while the storm was out of sight of GOES-7, which was over the Pacific, at 112 degrees west longitude.

The move to 75 degrees west longitude, a position over Colombia, where a United States weather satellite normally sits, was delayed until a communications relay station could be built in Wallops, Va. Meteosat-3 is controlled by a station in Darmstadt, Germany, and could not be moved further west until the United States finished the $11 million station at Wallops, through which information between the satellite and the German base will be exchanged.

If GOES-7 dies before a replacement is launched, the Wallops communications station will allow Meteosat-3 to move to the American satellite's location and provide coast-to-coast coverage of the United States while being controlled from Germany, Philip Goldsmith, director of earth observation for the European Space Agency, said at a news briefing today. Two Years of Fuel

Mr. Goldsmith estimated that Meteosat-3 had enough fuel left keep operating for perhaps two more years. The United States will pay the estimated $6 million annual operating cost.

While the European satellite can make the high-quality pictures and infrared images used by forecasters to follow cloud patterns and weather fronts, it is not an exact replacement for an American weather satellite. Meteosat-3 lacks a key instrument common to GOES satellites called a sounder, which measures temperatures in the atmosphere as well as the winds that help determine a storm's path.

High-altitude weather satellites operated by the United States, Europe and Japan form a global network that provides weather information for the rest of the world.

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A version of this article appears in print on February 25, 1993, on Page D00023 of the National edition with the headline: Europeans Lend Satellite to U.S. For the Weather. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe